chiknsmack

Two thirds of the ball. One third of the shots. Zero thirds of the goals. Interesting comment from the West Brom commentator when Tom Fellows came on: "I've never liked him on the left wing". It's something some on here have been calling for and we might see a bit of it now.

Was that 30th minute goal kick the first time their keeper has touched the ball?

I ordered from Bender's link a few days before your mate, can't find an order confirmation email (though may have deleted it), but got an "Order Shipping" email on the 27th and the shirt arrived in New Zealand today. The Order Shipping email included a tracking number I could track on 17track.net.

I like it. He looks to have a bit of size to him, and I like looking to Africa for midfielders. A couple of the big Turkish clubs were sniffing around apparently, so if he ends up at Goztepe for a year to qualify for a visa and play some senior football he might not look out of place. I'd rather have Charles, Jander, and Bragg locked down for a few years and given a chance to prove they're a PL-level 6 or 8, but I won't say no to a one-for-the-future who has shown ability at age-group national level.

I'm not seeing the lack of pace others are, but maybe I just need to see more of him. I worry more about lack of size, but he seems to do alright regardless. I think he's better suited in the middle than out wide, particularly from what I saw in preseason. If we wanted full rotation for this weekend something like Edozie - Matsuki - Robinson behind a striker would be my go.

Signing a backup keeper who's already injured. Resale value aside, the most SR move possible. It really is slim pickings when you want someone who speaks English, is ideally already in the country/doesn't need a visa, and has played to a decent level. You can't get PL keepers in on emergency loan to the lower divisions, so any worst-case stopgap loan would be from the Championship and below (and how many Championship clubs would want to do us a favour?). Is a George Long or a Jamie Jones who's been training with the side a better bet than whoever we can get in the door on loan from L1 or below on a couple of days' notice? Hopefully we never have to find out.

Auckland City are part of Bournemouth's multinational setup. Before they'd kicked a ball Bournemouth had bought the young international keeper Alex Paulsen from the rival Wellington Phoenix, using the lure of a direct pathway to the Premier League (one of the benefits of the multi-club model?) and then loaned him to Auckland, where he won his second straight A-League Goalkeeper of the Year award and helped the club to the A-League Premiership in their first year of existence.

We had both in the 1890s. I'd like to see them return for a change. I think we had an amber and black away kit around the same time; a return to that would be cool too.

Jelert and Long loans cancelled, Bree returns and Peretz brought in on loan. Minimal financial cost, doesn't tie us to anything long-term, improves the squad. That's the type of movement I'd expect in this window. (I still like Jelert and would want to see more of him, but he was supposed to be back from injury late last month or early this month and yet hasn't made a squad.) Bayern are disappointed he's only been playing in the cup. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/25691801.southampton-fc-linked-loan-move-bayern-munich-keeper/

GK: we have two mediocre (at best) options, but won’t be buying one when we have Ramsdale on the books. Sell him in January and I still don’t think we’d bring in an upgrade. Had Pope kept him on the bench maybe we could’ve gotten him back in January, which would’ve been nice. RB: Roerslev hasn’t impressed, Jelert hasn’t had a chance, Edwards CDAJFU. Bree is back from loan in January and would help, especially if Jelert’s loan is cancelled as is rumoured. CB: THB and Wood look broadly competent. The others don’t. In preseason I was calling for a veteran leader who has played at a higher level; Spors decided Jack Stephens fit the bill (I was looking for someone who was actually good enough for the Championship). Unlikely with the numbers we have but would make sense, especially if we want three on the pitch at once. LB: Manning can’t defend but is decent in attack and has free kicks in his locker (but so does Scienza). Welington is probably better. Jelert can cover here. DM/CM: Bar Romeu we don’t really have any DMs; we have CMs who can tackle. Charles and Jander are too good for the Championship, Downes is good for this level. Four for two spots is plenty, especially when you have Aribo/Edwards and Bragg/Sesay as depth. Number 10/AM: Azaz with Scienza as cover. Without those two it gets a bit messy (Matsuki and Fraser?) but if you can only buy one player it’s not going to be and upgrade on either of them, nor a third-choice Number 10 when we don’t play with one. Left Winger/Forward: Scienza, Robinson, Edozie, Fraser. Plenty. Right Winger/Forward: For wingers, it’s Fellows then nothing. In the current 3-4-3 it’s Fellows and Manning as wingers/wingbacks, so Azaz/Bree/Jelert are all right “winger” options. Without Fellows the better option would be changing to a 4-3-3 and playing an extra defender and midfielder instead of wingbacks. Four at the back, then Downes+Charles+Jander behind Azaz+Armstrong+Scienza. Centre Forward: Stewart great but injured. Armstrong too good for this level. Archer in theory is up to this level but isn’t showing it. Downs is probably a busted flush, at least as far as this season goes. Robinson’s an option, Oyekunle has handled the step up to U21s and been around the squad, Dipepa has 30-odd games of senior football under his belt. The attack and midfield are good and have decent depth. The defence and keepers are questionable. I suppose that’s borne out in the recent results when we’ve scored plenty but haven’t kept a clean sheet. The fullbacks are okay. The keepers probably aren’t for changing whether we want them to or not. We have the numbers at CB to put together a decent enough trio. I’d be fine with bringing in no new players in January, but gun to my head I’d want a Fonte-like figure at CB. I’ve actually thought ahead that if we go up we could look at bringing back VVD (and it’s not just pining for a former player who moved on to bigger things); in the last year of his contract, being trashed as not good enough for an elite side anymore, but done enough to garner respect from his teammates when he tells them what to do and clearly good enough to anchor the defence of a mid-table PL side. So it’s the main hole I see in the side. Tomiyasu is a free agent and could maybe fill it, but is an injury risk and apparently close to joining Ajax. I’m not watching enough PL this season to know of anyone who’s been benched but is still in that “too good for the Championship” range.

In addition to sitting back and inviting pressure late we're also back to the old habit of having no-one on the edge of the box, both from corners and in general. Downes and Romeu were both dropping into the backline and leaving Zone 14 empty. For their goal Gray cut inside and Downes wasn't there to close him down. Had he chosen not to shoot he had two unmarked players he could've passed to. It could be intentional (three at the back isn't thought to be enough defenders when the opponents are chasing the game so Manning has to play narrower and make it a compact back four - which would explain why he isn't being dropped for failing to close down crosses - and Downes has to drop back as an extra defender). But it's not working. We'd be better off either trusting the three CBs to be good enough and taking pressure off them by closing down crosses and midfield, or changing formation to four or five at the back with at least one proper fullback instead of Fellows and/or Manning. Fellows off (or Scienza off and Fellows pushed up the pitch as an outlet) for Romeu, Manning to LB, a CB to RB, 4-3-3.

Exactly. How people thought someone calling him a shit Joe Rothwell was anything other than a joke I don't know.

*whooosh* My tongue was firmly in my cheek, though if you want to take it seriously Rothwell came on against Huddersfield and scored two goals when Saints were 2-0 down, then made the cross which became the own goal to equalise when Saints were 3-2 down. He then came on against Sunderland when an early 2-0 Saints lead had been pegged back to 2-2 and scored another quick double. What has Azaz done? Scored against a Wednesday side in administration, butchered a chance to open the scoring against Charlton, then scored the fourth and fifth goals against Charlton, the last being poked in from an inch out. Boro fans did warn us that he can go missing in games when it matters...

Flat track bully. Until he conjures up a couple of goals when they're desperately needed he's a shit Joe Rothwell.

It'd be interesting to see this analysis if the x-axis was creativity instead of attacking performance. Saints are on the far left on a Wasteful/Clinical spectrum, but I imagine they'd be on the far right on a Uncreative/Creative spectrum. Which would make it clear that the problem isn't the manager, the formation, the tactics, the midfield, or even the defence (which according to the above is a touch above average rather than the calamitously shit I thought it was), but the finishing. So the correct move from SR was to say "Still is our manager for at least the next three years regardless of results, and ideally will fall in love with the club and continue to develop to the point five/ten years from now where he's rebuffed approaches from bigger clubs to lead Saints back to Europe". Then it'd be on the players to either play for him or not. No more of this "We don't respect the manager so we're going to half-arse our job until he gets sacked like the last six". Whoever the next manager is, I hope he's an upgrade on Still (but who in their right mind who's better than Still wants the job, unless they're happy to be unemployed six months from now?) and gets the requisite support from SR that the players know that if they don't perform to the best of their abilities they'll be gone before the manager is.